I don’t know what it is, but I’ve been dead tired for like 2 weeks straight. If Conor were here, he’d probably say I have mono (again). Really I’m probably not sleeping enough (commencement weekend didn’t help that at all) but I feel like I should be. I get more than 8 hours a night, which always used to be enough. Oh well, I press on.
Running has been going pretty well despite how tired I feel. I’m still not keeping much track of how much I run, but a good amount. John gave a decent recap of running at Oberlin, but I feel I should point out that “I could barely hobble along” apparently meant that he and Ryan were both crying like little girls while Clara, also barefoot, took it like a pro. This is according to Christa Wagner (I didn’t arrive until a few hours later) but it just goes to show that Clara is a beast. I also went for a run Saturday with Ryan and Everett, which was fun after a dip at Chance Creek. I think it would have been better if we’d run, then gone swimming, but whatever. The 5k Sunday was fun. Really the first half was all five of us (John, Conor, Everett, Ryan, and I) running together and chatting a bit. It was only at the end that John and I pulled out ahead of them. Then John challenged me to go “at that tree,” so we did. It was fun. Appenheimer’s response was “Of course.” It was, of course, good to see everyone (as it will be again in August!) and to chat with all the coaches at various times. I agree with John that Oberlin is, in fact, a wonderful place, though I’d be surprised if Appenheimer ever really thought of me when I wasn’t around to provoke it.
The rest of the week I pretty much returned to my normal 5-6 per day with a few randomly interspersed off days. Yesterday I did 10 and lifted some weights, then promptly fell asleep on the floor of my living room for like 2 hours. I almost think that I should keep a better record of what I’m doing, but this is so much more relaxed. This Friday there’s a 5k downtown that I’ll be doing in the evening, which should be fun. I think. We’ll see, and I’ll report back.
RE: everyone else. I’m not sure that I agree that “good base don’t go nowhere.” I usually feel terrible for a few days if I take even a decent amount of time off. Granted our version of feeling terrible and being slow is way more in shape than like 99% of the world’s population’s ideas of the same, but still I don’t like it. It usually takes a solid couple of weeks of running for me to feel like I’m back in the groove. It’s why I wasn’t that good in high school; I didn’t run on the weekends or over the summer and winter, so all my base went away and I had to start over each season. Fixed that in college and dropped my mile pr by a minute.
Hydration is key (I drink so much water that I get made fun of, but whatever, I’ve never had real problems) but I have always, and still do, subscribe to the Quenton Cassidy diet: If the oven gets hot enough, anything will burn. So I eat when I’m hungry, what I crave. I’ve always been a somewhat healthy eater anyway (thanks mom) but sometimes I want chicken mcnuggets. And when I do, I eat them.
We all do have bad days though, obviously. For me, I think the bigger problem is lack of people to run with than food or hydration or whatever. 10 miles goes by a lot faster when you’re arguing with Everett about frictionless bicycles or making fun or Ryan for looking like Sinead O’Conner or whatever. I mostly run alone, so when something starts to feel not good, that’s all I can think about. If I had good running buddies (and you guys were the best) I could concentrate on that instead, and it would all go by a lot better. Everytime I go to Oberlin I come back thinking that everything about running (and probably other life factors) would be better if we could all still run together.
Finally: congrats to Dan and Travis for running a half marathon this weekend. Ballers up in New England.